Whitechapel

DC Robert Alvey

Description:

Played by Craig Fairbrass

Cockney, 49. Alvey is as gregarious as his partner is quiet. He has a knack for getting people talking and jokes he should have been a publican. He knows the East End like the back of his hand and has friends everywhere. He does have an issue with foreigners, though, and has been known to make racist comments. He has a particular dislike of DI Arif Choudhury.

Bio:

Alvey had a rough life growing up in the East End and acquired his lifelong resentment of foreigners (particularly Bangladeshi) during many clashes with gangs growing up. By the time he left school in 1982, he knew he wanted to be a copper, and he spent the 1980s working a number of gang details in his old neighborhood. He received firearms training and, when he was promoted to Detective Sergeant in 1991, was put in charge of one of the new armed response units. He and PC Fred Murphy responded to a call for backup in 1993 that left the third member of their unit dead and the both of them moved to CID to work in the new cult squad. Alvey worked as Detective Sergeant under DI Sean Logan for eight years. In 2001, he got into a drunken fight with a Bangledeshi local in a pub which put the man in the hospital. Alvey was demoted to Detective Constable and Murphy’s partner Ellis Pryce took his place. He’s had a chip on his shoulder about Pryce ever since.

He’s been married for twenty-six years and has four grown children. He’s always been a devoted father, but since they’ve left home he is finding himself at the pub more and more and those who know him think the job might be wearing him down. He would retire, but has said he’s worried what would happen to him with nothing to do with himself.